Software applications, such as virtual machines (VMs), may be executed by a group, or “cluster,” of host computing devices. Each VM creates an abstraction of physical computing resources, such as a processor and memory, of the host executing the VM and executes a “guest” operating system, which, in turn, executes one or more software applications. The abstracted resources may be functionally indistinguishable from the underlying physical resources to the guest operating system and software applications.
At least some host computing devices are connected together to form one or more networks. In addition, at least some known cloud computing and/or datacenter environments include large numbers of host computing devices, and each computing device may include a plurality of VMs. Cloud computing and/or datacenter environments also include a plurality of network switches, datastores, and other devices or systems that support the host computing devices and VMs.
To ensure that the computing devices and/or other devices within a cloud computing environment and/or a datacenter operate efficiently and/or are configured properly, software management tools are often used. Such software management tools often display the computing devices and/or other devices in a tree or graphical view for monitoring. However, with large numbers of computing devices present in a cloud computing and/or datacenter environment, a tree view may become inconvenient, requiring a user to horizontally and/or vertically scroll through large sections of the tree within a relatively small application window. In addition, large numbers of computing devices and/or other devices may cause a graphical view to be visually convoluted and/or may require excessive computing resources to display the devices.
In addition, at least some known software management tools display data associated with computing devices in a segregated manner. In other words, the data is displayed only from the context of the application currently being accessed by the user. If the user wants to access other data available for a computing device that is supplied by another application, the user must exit the first application and access the second application, or must otherwise manually switch between applications. Accordingly, users may experience difficulty in identifying and/or diagnosing issues associated with computing devices.